We're here to help.

Have questions about your Carrotmob? Contact us at info@carrotmob.org or call us at (424) 246-6247.

GET STARTED

Congratulations! You've taken the first step in creating real change in your community.

Look out for an email from your Carrotmob spirit guide about how to take the next steps.

In a Carrotmob campaign, a group of people spends money to support a business, and in return the business makes an improvement that people care about. You win, the business wins, and the community wins.

Want to be a part of our movement to change our communities, one business at a time? Fill out the form below, and a member of our team will get in touch to discuss how to get involved.

Tell us about yourself

What issues are you interested in organizing a Carrotmob campaign about?

Your Carrotmob spirit guide will be in touch ASAP to help you finalize the plan and get started on preparing for your campaign launch. If you can't wait until then and want a sneak peak at what's next, check out the "Prepare" section to help you get ready for go-time.

PLAN YOUR CAMPAIGN

Successful Carrotmob campaigns take time to create and promote. We recommend building a core team of 2-5 ultra-productive ninjas for your Carrotmob campaign so that you can divide up responsibilities and reach a larger network of people. Besides partnering with friends or family members, consider reaching out to advocacy organizations, schools, local governments, companies, sports teams, or other entities that are aligned with the spirit of Carrotmob.
So, who do you want to help you plan your Carrotmob?

Choose the Businesses

Your ultimate goal is to get a business to agree to a Carrotmob campaign and take action. We recommend casting a wide net and approaching 5-10 businesses to increase the likelihood of finding a great business.

Brainstorm a list of businesses in your community

Make a list of businesses you could potentially Carrotmob. Here are our top tips for choosing businesses to target.

Who do you know: Are you already connected to businesses? Have you worked with any businesses in the past? Is there a cafe/restaurant/store you frequent regularly where they know you? Do you know the manager of any businesses?Who’s already doing “good”: Are there any businesses you know that are already taking good actions that might want to take it to the next level?Location: Are there businesses in an area that you and your mob actually go to? Affordability: The best Carrotmob campaigns are moderately priced ($10-30). Are the businesses in that price range?Business size: We recommend targeting local, small businesses. Sanity check: Are there businesses that you and your mob would want a gift certificate to regardless of Carrotmob? (ie. are these businesses cool?)

Choosing the Action

Start thinking of specific actions that you’d like to see the businesses take. Below, we’ve listed some suggestions for what makes a good action.

Specific

Rather than ask a business to generally fight climate change, ask them to take a specific action, like sealing their windows to improve insulation.

Requires a finite amount of spending for the business to implement

Actions that simply require a one-time cost -- like installing a bike rack or a water-saving faucet -- are best. For actions that require ongoing costs, like sourcing a sustainable seafood option or selling Fair Trade coffee, the business may worry about incurring the long term financial risk. Instead, you could ask the business to pilot the action for a specific period of time so the cost is fixed. That could make the business owner comfortable if it turns out that no one wants the new items, they aren’t stuck serving them forever. And who knows: these often become the most popular dishes on the menu! The "pilot" period might demonstrate that the community is excited for this change, which could encourage the business to keep the change for longer.

Realistic

Estimate the amount of money your mob will spend at the business. Estimate what percent of the spending the business will devote to the improvement. Will that be enough to cover the cost of the improvement?

Here's a list of Carrotmob actions that have proven successful

Topic

You could Carrotmob a business to...

Climate Change

Upgrade its lighting to be more energy efficient
Install an Energy Star Star dishwasher

Create or expand a training program for local youth
Source food from local farms

Talk to businesses

Prepare your pitch

Before you start approaching businesses, prepare what you’re going to tell them. Think about how you can convince a business to participate. Here are some reasons why Carrotmobs are good for businesses.

Carrotmobbers spend money at your business.

We pay full-price. Carrotmob isn’t a daily deal company. Our mob is motivated by a desire to see a change, not a desire to pay as little as possible. We pay full-price at campaigns so we have a bigger positive impact.

Carrotmobs give businesses loyal, values-based customers who are likely to be repeat customers

A Carrotmob campaign can give your business good community relations and press coverage

Carrotmob is a positive movement. We never criticize or attack businesses.

Some actions will save you money in the long run - like energy retrofits and water-saving devices

Carrotmob takes a 10% fee on all transactions

A good percentage of the vouchers won't be redeemed, meaning pure profit for the business that can go toward financing the positive change.

Contact the businesses

Find the email address of the owner or manager on the business website or go in person and ask to speak to them. Here’s a draft email to send the business.

Hello,

My name is ________ and I'm a member of Carrotmob, which leads crowdbuying campaigns for social good. In a Carrotmob campaign, a group of people makes purchases at a business and in return, the business makes a change the people care about. Carrotmob campaigns can fund all sorts of good changes like installing LED lighting, energy efficient appliances, or switching to compostable to-go containers. I'm writing because I'd like to lead a Carrotmob campaign at your business.

Carrotmob is not a discounting program. Instead, our community wants to pay full price for products and services in order to enable positive environmental and social change in businesses. People across the globe have already spent more than $1M helping over 250 businesses make positive changes through Carrotmob campaigns. These campaigns provide businesses with the upfront capital needed to make improvements, increase sales, and foster public goodwill from the community.

If you go in person, explain what a Carrotmob is. Show them this page for small businesses. We've found that this is the best way to get a business owner to quickly visualize hundreds of happy customers coming to their store and get more excited.

Try, try again

You might get turned down by a business or two. Don't worry. In the first-ever Carrotmob campaign, Brent approached over 20 businesses and only 3 were interested. So if you get rejected, welcome to the club! Turn that frown upside down.

Promotion plan

To make your Carrotmob campaign a success, you need to spread the word! Think about how many people you need to participate in order to reach your spending goal. What is your target demographic? Now, work backwards. You should aim to reach 10x as many people through your promotion as your participation goal.

How will you get the word out about the Carrotmob campaign?

Which personal contacts will you email? Professional contacts?

Do you know any bloggers that will post about this?

Who will you ask to post about this Facebook and Twitter?

How will you create a video to promote the campaign?

What press will you ask to to write a story about the Carrotmob campaign?

What will your partners do to promote the Carrotmob campaign? Will they email their lists, Tweet about it, post at their venues, etc.?

Once you've found a business interested in taking action, submit your campaign proposal using the form below. We’ll contact you to help you with next steps like finalizing the agreement with the business and creating the campaign page.

About the business

Contact information for each owner/manager/employee you’ve connected with regarding the campaign:

The Campaign

What have you discussed with the business? (This does not all have to be established, but we want to get as much info as possible.)
What is the action the business will take?
What is the length of campaign?
When will the campaign start?

Campaign Promotion and Goals

How many people do you expect to participate in the campaign?
How much money do you want spent?
How do you plan to promote this campaign?

Submit Campaign Plan

PREPARE YOUR CAMPAIGN

You’ve submitted your proposal. Now it’s time to prepare everything you need to launch your campaign.

Prepare your campaign page materials

After the campaign agreement has been made, the next step is to create your campaign page. You’ll be sent a special link from your Carrotmob coach to add the content directly onto the page.

You want to create a campaign page that is compelling! What will make people decide they will spend their hard-earned money on the Carrotmob campaign?

Write the Campaign Title and Subtitle

Come up with a short, interesting title and a subtitle that is descriptive. The title and subtitle appear when you post the link on Facebook and Twitter so this is what people will read. You need to convince people to click the link to learn more just based on the title and subtitle, so get creative!

Add a photo

This photo is going to be everywhere -- on our campaigns page, in the link that appears on Facebook and Twitter, and in the press if they pick up the story. So make it a good one! Pick a photo that is visually engaging. It could be a photo of the business owner in front the business, what the business is taking action on, what the business sells, etc.

Write the Campaign Statement

This describes in one sentence what people need to do and the action the business will take. Example: Buy a $20 voucher to Mission Cheese and they’ll install new bike parking on Valencia Street and water-saving devices throughout the restaurant.

Write the About the Campaign

Make the case to people about why they should participate. Why is this business awesome? Why does the business want to take action? If you’ve been working with the owner, write about how they’re awesome and why people should support this local business.

What does the business sell? What are they known for? What are their specialty items?

Who is organizing this campaign and why? Is it a group of friends, an organization, or what? Share why you are doing this. What motivates you? Why are you passionate about this, and why should other mobbers be passionate about this as well?

That's about it! Only include what's really important. If your description gets too long, no one will read it!

Enter the Campaign Dates

When does the campaign start and end.

Event

If you’re having an event, enter the date and add a link to the Facebook event.

Prepare your promotional materials

Remember the promotional plan you made? Now’s the time to create the materials needed to promote the campaign so you can launch with a bang.

Write your email to friends and co-workers.

Write your email pitch to get other people to post about the campaign on their blogs and social media

Create your video

Write your press release or press pitch

Work with partners to develop their email and social media announcements

Make posters and flyers

Make your carrot costume

Plan event

Events can be a great way to mobilize support for the Carrotmob campaign and bring people together to celebrate. If you want to hold an event, here are some tips to help you plan.

Coordinate with the business to figure out what a good day and time are for an event.

Typically, events last for 2-4 hours.

It's fun to get a big crowd together because it feels like a fun party. If you want a big crowd, be specific about what time people should arrive.

Consider coordinating with an existing event such as a festival, conference, party, sports game, or parade?

Set reasonable expectations with the business owner so they get a clear idea of the size of the crowd. This way, they can determine whether they need extra goods or staff on the day of the campaign.

Recruit volunteers to help you with your event. It's great to have people on hand to help explain what's going on to the public, do crowd control, take photos and videos, entertain the crowd, help the business with random tasks, and so on.

If you are getting people together in a public place, make sure you get any permits you might need.

ACT

It’s go-time! This is the moment of truth - it’s time to launch your campaign!

Post promotional materials

Now that the campaign page is live, start outreaching to spread the word. Post your blog, social media messages and videos and start contacting press.

Check in

Stop by the business once the campaign has launched to to make sure everything is going smoothly.
Try using the voucher at the business so you understand the process that people will go through. That way you can answer questions that participants might have.

Check in with us here at Carrotmob, too! We want to know how it’s going and if we can help.

Run your event

Don't forget to party! Making your event fun and sharing results after the campaign are both important for making people want to come back to the next one!

FOLLOW UP

You finished your campaign. The last step is to send thanks and follow up to show the impact of your campaign!

Send thanks

Write a thank you note to the business and get partners and Carrotmobbers to sign it.

Send a message to Carrotmobbers. Write a post on Facebook and an email to say thank you to everyone who participated.

Send thanks to any partner organizations or co-organizers for all their efforts.

Follow up with the business

The most important part of the the whole campaign is the change that the business makes as a result of the campaign. Find out when the business will take action.

Follow up with your mob

The top reason that people like Carrotmob is because of the tangible results. Unlike petitions or protests, you see the impact of a Carrotmob every time. You’ve finished your Carrotmob - now it’s time to celebrate your accomplishments. Take a photo or video to show evidence of the action to your mob and write a quick summary of the event and the impact. Send an email to your mob to let them know about the impact and upload the summary to the campaign page! Well done!

Join the mob!

The fastest and easiest way to join Carrotmob is by connecting with your Facebook
account. You will also be able see what your friends are doing on Carrotmob and quickly
share some of your activities with your network. To learn more about how this works,
read this. If you
are curious about the permissions we're requesting of your Facebook account,
read
this. Clicking this button will NOT post anything to your Facebook wall.